<p>"In other words, while some of the brightest and most accomplished students are homeschooled, that is not really good evidence that homeschooling is best or appropriate for large numbers of students."</p>
<p>Hunt, I do agree with you on this. And this coming from an advocate both for homeschooling & for gifted education (or, shall I say, educational options for the truly gifted who would do better not simply mainstreamed, at least in TODAY's version of mainstreaming).</p>
<p>Let me just mention that not only is homeschooling not for everyone (and the poster earlier who said she felt "inadequate" I wanted to give a big 'berurah' hug to -- for those of you who know 'the hugger' of whom I speak), I hardly think you're inadequate.</p>
<p>First of all, the most successfully homeschooled students are those with the 4 following features, in abundance:
(1) motivated student + parent(s) ("passionate," or however you name it)
(2) capable student
(3) capable teaching parent(s)
(4) purchasing power, & in that regard, recalling that time, as well as flexible & portable time, = money as well.</p>
<p>No question, as huguenot said, there is much available for the "common man," shall we say. Free stuff? Yes. (Even books with that title.:)) Leveraging legitimate public funds for supplementation, and/or for basic schooling? Yes. (And thank goodness for that.) However, much of what has been posted is not accessible to many middle class families, which is definitely not to criticize this family, merely to provide some perspective.</p>
<p>This family was fortunate enough to have all 4 features in spades. Some families are still able to do well with only 1 or 2 features there (as some other posters have also said). So it's not that money alone should prevent anyone from homeschooling, it's to understand the full equation. For example, as one who has worked professionally in homeschooling, I know families who could have benefited much more from h/schooling if they had had a specialist for an education related need such as LD, for which public funds are not available unless you are in a site school. Conversely, I know families blessed with the top 3 features but not the 4th. Others have had all aspects except #3: those are the families experiencing the greatest disaster when it comes to h/schooling: everyone's motivated but the one in charge can't do the job, & often doesn't get it that he or she isn't doing the job.</p>
<p>What site school does provide is realistic comparisons with a spectrum of age-mates. (Even in expensive boarding schools, one is likely to run into more of a variety of personality types & ability categories, for the simple reason of more frequent, sustained exposure.) It can be very helpful to have the experience & humility to see when you're wrong, or are less accomplished/capable in a particular tiny area than a classmate. I've heard a lot of (non-homeschooled) Ivy & other peer school matriculants express shock at how "small" they feel relative to some of the amazing brains they encounter. It's a real self-concept adjustment, shall we say. Judging one's academic accomplishments <em>in context</em> is a very important aspect of academic maturity, not to mention personal growth. Further, much real <em>academic</em> learning takes place within peer give-and-take, including learning from others who operate in different learning modalities from one's own, from which we can all benefit. </p>
<p>Believe me, anyone who has been on CC more than a few months knows how I rail on about the inadequacies in American public education, but I think it's important to see some of its advantages as well. It's one thing to take community college classes at a young age. From an intellectual perspective, again, I'm thrilled that that's available to middle school & high school students. (From 5th grade in our State.) However, most of the time these are NOT one's peers. Sometimes the younger student is superior in knowledge & capability, sometimes inferior in one respect, but mostly, they are not age-mates & thus do not provide as accurate a "mirror" as some other formats do. Secondly, there is often less class discussion/interaction required in a community college class (being usually more lecture-driven) than in a high school level class.</p>
<p>Finally, while I definitely agree that some families (in both private & public site schools) rely too much on just the AP title, rather than going in depth into a subject, I do not approve of the earlier bashing of private school parents as somehow showing selfishness or abandonment (vs. homeschooling parents). Most of these families lack a key ingredient to homeschool success, the first one being parent capability, the second being freedom to maximize h/schooling to at least the level of opportunity provided by the private school. Most parents of privately schooled students are not entrepreneurs or owners, and of those that are, many of those are leading start-up companies or efforts which require a 60-70 hr. workweek commitment for the first 3 years, and they must do so on-site, not on a laptop. </p>
<p>Again, do NOT misinterpret me and read this as a justification for trolling, misquoting me, etc. It is merely on the subject of homeschooling, since i.m.o. the Trib article was not balanced in some of the ways I refer to here.</p>
<p>Anyway, I'm still waiting to hear about the mysterious NJ incident.</p>